Tag Archives: APOE

A variant gene thought to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease, the ε4 allele of the gene for apolipoprotein E, may be associated with other forms of dementia (Zabetian et al, Archives of Neurology, 2012).

In this study, the researchers defined four types of dementia – Alzheimer’s without Lewy body neuropathologic changes, Lewy body disease with Alzheimer’s features, pure Lewy body disease (with low or no Alzheimer’s features), and Parkinson’s dementia (also with low or no Alzheimer’s features).

The variant – the ε4 allele of the gene for apolipoprotein E (APOE) – was elevated in both Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia. This suggests that APOEε4 can play other roles (i.e., other than amyloid degeneration in AD) in neurodegeneration.